


baby on board

by gezurak



Series: five star safety rating [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-16 04:37:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gezurak/pseuds/gezurak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Derek drives five miles under the speed limit on the way home from the hospital, so sue him. </p><p>sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/823951">five star safety rating</a>, but can stand alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby on board

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted this to feel different from five star safety rating, which was light and quick and just barely grazed the surface of feelings. I think it does, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless x

The Volvo has been packed for nearly four weeks, ever since Dr. Jacobsen told them that realistically, the baby could come at any time. Stiles would have had it packed as soon as they knew Natalie was pregnant, but Derek liked to have  _some_  control of his life, reminding his husband that driving around with a carseat in the backseat wouldn't make the baby come any faster. 

Now, a week past Natalie's due date, Derek wonders if letting Stiles have his way would have made a difference. He's a strange mix of terrified and excited that Scott assures him is just first-time parent nerves. Taking parenting advice from  _Scott McCall of all people_ only adds to his hesitations. 

He'd never thought he'd be here. Married, with a baby on the way, alpha of a pack that has grown to the be largest on the west coast. It still feels a bit surreal sometimes, to be in the house he grew up in, rebuilt and refilled with love and laughter. But he's incredibly grateful for all of it, especially Stiles, who is currently standing at the kitchen island, chopping the vegetables to add to the roast already in the oven. 

"Are you just going to stand there looking all pensive or are you going to come help me?" Stiles asks, one eyebrow quirked at Derek standing in the double doorway between the kitchen and back mud room. 

"Help," Derek replies and Stiles hands him the potatoes to peel. 

They work in tandem in comfortable silence, Derek peeling and Stiles chopping until Scott wanders in from the backyard with Emma on his hip. The two year old squeals when she sees her uncles and demands her father hand her over. Stiles quickly wipes his hands on a dish towel and takes her from Scott. Derek smiles fondly as Stiles pretends to steal Emma's nose and the little girl giggles wildly and requests for him to return it immediately, with all the authority of an Argent. 

"Natalie not coming?" Scott inquires and takes up Stiles' knife to finish the task. As soon as the vegetables are in the oven, it will nearly be time for dinner and even at thirty he doesn't like to wait for food. 

Derek shakes his head. 

"Said she's feeling like a whale and not really up to it today." 

"Can't say I blame her, though smells like she's going to miss out on an awesome family dinner." 

"We're taking her leftovers later, as long as you leave some," Derek says with a smirk. 

Scott makes a face at him as Stiles' phone rings where it's sitting on the other side of the breakfast bar. Stiles shifts Emma in his arms and answers it with a, "Hey, Nat." 

Derek continues with piling vegetables into the roasting pan until he hears Stiles gasp, "are you sure?" and looks up to see him motioning to Scott to take Emma. 

"Okay. Deep breaths. We'll meet you there, okay? See you soon." 

After ending the call, Stiles stares down at his phone for a long moment, mouth agape like he cannot believe the call just happened. 

"Nat's on the way to the hospital," he says breathlessly, lifting his gaze to Derek. " _We're gonna be dads_."

Derek can't breathe. All the air has left his lungs and the words get trapped in his throat because it's happening. Years of turmoil and then months of waiting and  _it's happening._

He's going to be a parent. 

He's going to be responsible for another life, one that is linked to his own in such a way the bond can never be broken. 

Suddenly Stiles is in front of him, gentle hands cupping his jaw and pulling him back in. 

"Hey, relax," he says soothingly, "everything is going to be  _fine._ "

;

And everything  _is_  fine, Derek realises two days later as he carefully lifts his son from the cot to prepare to take him home. He still feels impossibly tiny in his arms, so fragile and so precious. The baby makes a snuffling noise, barely stirring in his sleep when Derek places him in the grey and yellow carseat and begins to strap him in. It's been a long forty-eight hours, from Stiles running into the backyard to tell their assembled family they were more than welcome to stay for dinner but he and Derek had to leave because 'I'm gonna be a dad. Oh my god, I'm gonna be a dad,' to the long hours of waiting, to the emotional rollercoaster that immediately followed their son's birth.

Derek checks the straps of the harness to ensure they're not too tight but not too loose and the baby sleeps on. He knows it's only a matter of time before he's being woken in the middle of the night for another feeding and he ought to savour the peaceful silence, but a part of him wishes the newborn was awake for the ride home. 

"I'm still not over how much he looks like you," Stiles whispers from behind him, hefting the diaper bag onto his shoulder, and it's true. The baby has the Hale family nose, a fact Cora had delighted in when she'd come to visit, and his eyes already hint at green.  

"Then we can only pray he has your personality," Derek teases and presses a kiss to his husband's temple. "Ready to get him home?" 

Stiles nods eagerly, eyes shining. He's waited so long every minute longer he has to wait feels like torture. 

They say good-bye to Natalie who is also preparing to go home with her mother, saying what feels like their millionth 'thank you' but will never be enough to express their gratitude for what she's done for them. She gives them a cheeky grin, wishing them luck. 

If Derek drives five miles under the speed limit on the way home, so sue him. He's been driving the Volvo to work for a year but this is the first time he really  _feels_  the vehicle. 

He can feel every dip in the pavement, every shift of the transmission through the gas pedal, aware of how everything affects the cabin. 

"You know, going thirty in a thirty zone isn't going to make a difference," Stiles says, eyes flashing to Derek from where he's sitting sideways in the passenger seat so he can peek into the back to look at the baby. 

"Neither is going twenty in a thirty zone. And either way, we're nearly home." 

Derek eases the car off the county road and on to the long driveway that leads up to the house. They're pulling up beside the Jeep in a few more moments and Stiles is swinging his door open before Derek even has the Volvo in park. Derek chuckles to himself as he kills the engine, sliding down from the driver's seat as Stiles unlatches the carseat from the back. Stiles reemerges from the car, shuts the door with his hip, and reorients the carseat in his hand so the baby, now awake and blinking up at his fathers, can see the front door of the large house. 

"Welcome home, Jace." 


End file.
